Me.

ChefPla is my nickname, Pla meaning fish in Thai, a moniker I earned when I mangled the Thai pronunciation of a dish I was ordering.

I am not a Chef by training; that part of the nickname has a bit of a story behind it.

I used to work as a consultant, until the frequent travel became intolerable. What did not was the experiencing of food in the many countries I visited. Thus began my obsession with Food and Cooking.

Never being content to just cook, I would constantly search out recipes from around the world, recipes I would fuss and obsess over in the kitchen. That would elicit good natured teasing along the lines of ‘ChefPla’ is in the kitchen today. So, the name stuck and when I was looking for a name for my website, the first one suggested to me was ‘ChefPla.com’. And there you have it.

Today, Food, Cooking and Writing about this is what I do full time. Days are spent reading about food and cuisine from around the world, researching recipes, testing them again and again.

Who This Website is For.

It’s for everybody who loves food and cooking, especially those who are just learning to cook or those adventurous souls who want to experiment with cuisine from other countries and regions.

Whilst I blog infrequently, I do post a new article and recipe every Friday Thai time. Visit the home page to check this out.

I have recently added a Photo Gallery, with larger photos of the finished dishes, for those who want to see what a particular dish looks like.

The Recipes on My Website.

I have a few ‘rules’ that I set for myself;

1. The recipes must be clear and simple to follow, even for long complex recipes.

A beginner should feel comfortable. If you are an experienced cook, you can probably take in several steps at a time, but please do not be impatient. When someone has never cooked a dish before, the step-by-step approach really helps them, and they appreciate it.

2. No weighing if you can count.

I will not give you a weight for, for example, chillies unless it is something like 50 or 60 chillies. For a couple, 5, 15, it is easier to count.

3. No Unnecessary Measuring.

I’ll give you a number of cloves of garlic, not how many teaspoons minced garlic. I like to keep it simple. I might if I say “use 3 sprigs coriander”, qualify that as equivalent to 1/3 cup when chopped. Three huge sprigs would ruin the taste when you need 3 smallish sprigs, hence the qualifier.

4. Only Whole Units To Be Used

I cannot abide by recipes that say use ½ cup chopped onions or 1 cup diced potatoes, as if changing those proportions would mean death for the dish. These are obviously recipes written by people who are used to having prepared stuff by the basin-full handy, and can just measure out what they need. For the home cook, it begs the question “So what do I do with the rest of the onion / potato / carrot?” Thus, I stick to 1 small / medium / large onion, etc etc. You get to use all of it.

How I Come Up With The Recipes.

Mainly, reading about the food and cuisine of countries and regions, selecting interesting dishes and cooking them to see how they really are. If a dish is native to a country or region, it is a safe assumption that there are probably hundreds or thousands of ‘recipes’ for it. The basics may be the same, beyond that everyone has their own version.

Alternatively, having some nice ingredient in hand, like a beautiful mackerel steak, and checking out the different ways people prepare fish steaks in different countries.

If the dish is interesting enough, then I do more research on the recipe. There are always many ways to prepare a dish, and I like to try at least some of the variety out there.

Based on the sum of that experience, I put together a concoction in my head and cook that to see how it turns out. This is still just playing around with prep and flavours.

When I get to the point where I see it’s good, and the reaction of folks eating it tells me the same, then its time for the serious development to start.

I’ll write down the recipe as it was done for the dish. The next time I cook it, I use that recipe in my notebook and record times, smells, looks, impressions and adjustments to ingredients. Then, look at the reaction when the food is served.

If I am lucky, and the dish is simple with basic flavours, good enough can be the second time I cook it. If I have to change ingredients and proportions, and especially in Asian cuisine, this does upset the balance of flavours, this can take much longer.

Once its good and I have documented everything as above, it needs one more outing; the replicate test. If I cook everything exactly as per my notes, do I get the same good result? During the replicate test, I start photographing prep steps and cooking steps. Sometimes, the cooked dish, though often this waits for another day.

When the recipe is good enough for publication, I look into the photography more seriously, takes photos of whatever else needs to be illustrated, and especially get ones of the finished dish.

Food Photography

I’m sure you’ve read of 4 hour photo shoots. Fake ice-cream, because the real one melts too soon. Five boxes of corn flakes picked through to get a bowl of perfect flakes, then latex glue used instead of milk because it looked better.

Every finished dish photo on this website is 100% edible, and in every instance was our meal, be it brunch or dinner. As it was our meal getting cold, the shoots take 5 – 8 minutes max, then we sit down and eat that food which you see in the photos.

So, you may not find the prettiest food photographs on this site, but know this – you can cook exactly the same at home, make it look the same, and it will taste the same as what we ate. Nothing fake or simulated here, just the real thing.

And we don’t have professional food stylists; we just try and arrange the food so that it looks nice, as you would do if you were entertaining friends.